Denver post office for sale, Services will remain unchanged

The building housing Denver s post office is up for sale but there should be no worries for residents, who can expect postal services to remain available on Snyder Street for at least nine more years. Denver Borough Manager Mike Hession informed council members late last month that the building at 102 Snyder St., owned by High Family Partnership, had been listed for sale.

The 5,071-square-foot building was built in 2000, in part to keep a post office in Denver after the Main Street facility closed. The sale is not related to postal service restructuring that threatens to close many facilities, including Lititz s downtown headquarters. The postal service plans to close up to 2,000 offices nationwide following an $8.5 billion loss in 2010. Hession said the lease for the Denver post office is expected to transfer with any sale; the original contract has nine years remaining, as well as two possible extensions totaling another 10 years.

The post office has played a major role in Denver s history. Records show that in 1881, Adam G. Brubaker scoured post offices nationwide to come up with a new name for the area, which was then referred to as a railroad station. He found only one post office named Denver, and the borough took on the same name that November. In 2000, when the postal service decided to close its office at 143 Main St. because of space limitations, council worked to keep services in the borough.

Working with commercial real estate company High Associates, they rezoned a 10.2-acre property that was later subdivided to allow construction of the new post office building. “The members of borough council and the community felt that it was important to keep the post office in the borough to maintain Denver s sense of location, Hession said.

Residents also like the convenience of being able to access postal services and buy stamps and packaging in their own community, Hession said. As of Monday, the property was still available, according to the High Associates’ website. The listing asks $1,075,000. The 1.3-acre property is assessed at $659,900, and the lease calls for the post office to pay $92,000 annually for the length of the original contract. It is up to the postal service to determine any extensions.